From the inotify manpage:
IN_CREATE File/directory created in watched directory (*).
It can be done by catching this event.
Again from the manpage:
Limitations and caveats
Inotify monitoring of directories is not recursive: to monitor subdirectories under a directory, additional watches must be created. This can take a significant
amount time for large directory trees.
So, you will need to do the recursive part yourself. You can start by looking an example from here. You should also have a look at the project notify-tools
EXAMPLE as asked in comments: It monitors /tmp/inotify1 & /tmp/inotify2 for new files created & displays the events
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/inotify.h>
#define EVENT_SIZE ( sizeof (struct inotify_event) )
#define BUF_LEN ( 1024 * ( EVENT_SIZE + 16 ) )
int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
int length, i = 0;
int fd;
int wd[2];
char buffer[BUF_LEN];
fd = inotify_init();
if ( fd < 0 ) {
perror( "inotify_init" );
}
wd[0] = inotify_add_watch( fd, "/tmp/inotify1", IN_CREATE);
wd[1] = inotify_add_watch (fd, "/tmp/inotify2", IN_CREATE);
while (1){
struct inotify_event *event;
length = read( fd, buffer, BUF_LEN );
if ( length < 0 ) {
perror( "read" );
}
event = ( struct inotify_event * ) &buffer[ i ];
if ( event->len ) {
if (event->wd == wd[0]) printf("%s\n", "In /tmp/inotify1: ");
else printf("%s\n", "In /tmp/inotify2: ");
if ( event->mask & IN_CREATE ) {
if ( event->mask & IN_ISDIR ) {
printf( "The directory %s was created.\n", event->name );
}
else {
printf( "The file %s was created.\n", event->name );
}
}
}
}
( void ) inotify_rm_watch( fd, wd[0] );
( void ) inotify_rm_watch( fd, wd[1]);
( void ) close( fd );
exit( 0 );
}
Test run:
shadyabhi@archlinux ~ $ ./a.out
In /tmp/inotify1:
The file abhijeet was created.
In /tmp/inotify2:
The file rastogi was created.
^C
shadyabhi@archlinux ~ $
